1. Strategy Sisson
9.17.2013
Patrick Sisson
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2. Challenge
Maintain Iconic Image While Appealing to the
Changing Habits of Young Consumers
• Through classic advertising campaign such as “The Best Part of Waking Up,” Folgers
Coffee has become an indispensable part of consumer’s morning rituals and developed
a deep association with the best parts of starting your day (optimism, waking up a loved
one with breakfast, sharing a reflective moment with those you care about).
• While Folgers is still the best-selling coffee brand in U.S. supermarkets, and was ranked
the No. 1 CPG coffee brand of the year in the 2013 Harris Poll EquiTrend rankings,
trends among millennial consumers suggest that coffee consumption is rapidly
changing. More boutique products and customized, targeted marketing campaigns,
which directly address the habits and values of these consumers, are needed to expand
recognition and acceptance with young coffee drinkers.

3. Target Insights
Twenty- to thirty-somethings aren’t drinking
their parent’s coffee.

4. Target Insights
• They’re schooled in coffee.
Their increased sophistication, knowledge, and in some cases
snobbery, about coffee, production and appreciation means
brands must give them a premium product with a story that
resonates.
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5. Target Insights
• They want something that aligns with their values.
Fair-trade brands, and brands with the imprinteur of
being independent and gourmet, gain traction –
coffee is an affordable luxury and a way to express
who the drinker is and what they believe in.

6. Target Insights
They want rich, satisfying taste.
• Increased sophistication leads to desire for a more flavorful,
rich coffee.
• Gourmet coffee continues to be a significant portion of total
coffee consumption – indicating that consumers want to
maintain coffee quality even as the economy is uncertain.
(NCA USA)
• 34% of coffee drinkers get prefer premium brands of coffee.
• Gourmet Coffee Beverages skew younger, with 41% of
consumers age 25-39 consuming them in the past day

7. Brand Insights
• Folgers has a rich history and legacy that speaks directly to the millennial desire for
authenticity. As opposed to new brands currently sweeping the marketplace, Folgers
has the legacy and origin story that today’s young consumers seek out.
• Founded in 1850’s San Francisco during gold rush era as The Pioneer Steam Coffee
and Spice Mills, one of the first places to sell ground, ready-to-use coffee in the United
States. It continued over the next 150 years to develop tastes standards, expand its
reach, and even created a boutique brand, Folgers Golden Gate Coffee.
• Folgers has created savvy commercials and jingles – relying on the strength of previous
campaigns – to appeal to a younger audience.
http://www.youtube.com/watch?feature=player_embedded&v=lGxUl2u6wYA
• Take Away – Legacy, History, Authenticity, Realness
This brand is as old as Levi’s and can tell a similar story.

8. Contextual Insights
Premium brands aimed at these consumers use
advertising, design and positioning that play up a
“heritage” and connection to the past (that they
sometimes don’t actually have).
Heritage Cycles (Chicago) Poler (Portland)

9. Creative Sparks
DIY/Outdoors
• A connection to America’s rugged, frontier
heritage can help reinforce a brand’s authenticity
and realness, giving it the appeal of a boutique
brand.
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10. Creative Sparks
Portland and San Francisco
• While these cities and their hipster culture can be
endlessly spoofed (See “Portlandia), their creative
communities and innovative cultures resonate withi
the culture at large.
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11. Creative Sparks
Instagram
• Brands can tell their story through visuals, and have
millennials, who gravitate towards social and
mobile media, share this content.
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12. Creative Sparks
Heritage Fonts/Sign Painting
• Historical typefaces, highlighted in documentaries
like “Sign Painters” and packaging review sites
like Dieline, are a simple yet effective means of
visual storytelling.

13. Strategy Parameters
• American Ruggedness and Ingenuity – Connect with frontiersman and
outdoorsman and their sense of optimism and self-reliance. Create a new
brand called Pioneer Steam Coffee that has a connection to the past but
espouses timeless values.
• Retro Packaging -- Forget the brown paper bag and use a metal tin to
suggest strength, portability, the outdoors and history.
• Origin Story – Tell consumers this is a coffee brand that was built by a self-
made entrepreneur when San Francisco was still being shaped and born. The
dreamers, schemers and visionaries that built that city drank this coffee
before they went to work.
• Camping – Build up a relationship with outdoor exploration. Utilize high-end
photo shoots of campers making a fresh pot before setting off to explore
America’s vast natural treasures. This reinforces the American heritage
concept and creates perfect content to share through mobile social networks
like Instagram.

14. Strategy Parameters
• Workshop It – Give away coffee to companies that symbolize the new
American manufacturing renaissance, and document the experience. Think of
a panorama of workers on the factory floor at Shinola, a new high-end
manufacturing concern in Detroit, starting the day. This isn’t fussy coffee for
mustachioed hipsters – it’s the way a real American worker gets started and
gets ready for real work. This is another great social media story, and a large-
scale coffee giveaway promotes Folgers’ own sense of corporate
responsibility.
• Social Responsibility – Make certain free trade beans are used, and tell the
story of the roasters and farmers. Connect the “work” concept above to the
work that employees are doing to bring this coffee to the store.
• Keep It Simple – Do not let the copy get too bogged down in specifics about
where the beans came from, and do not use dressed-up flavors descriptions
that look like they came from a wine list. It’s a real, honest beverage for real,
honest people.

15. Strategy Parameters
• Real, Not Virtual, Experience -- Don’t fetishize technology and
social media that can feel more and more invasive, and like a
barrier. Promote real experiences. This isn’t about being anti-tech –
social media is still a key promotional channel and influencer –
rather it’s about being “pro real world,” and stepping away for the
monitor for a second and not missing what’s in front of you.

16. Mock Ad
Pour-overs had a much different meaning when we started roasting
coffee…
Started by American originals in 1850, Pioneer Steam Coffee grew up in a different San Francisco: the lure of the West Coast
wasn’t tech firms and IPOs, it was a chance to build your own legacy with your bare hands; the hip startups in town were
shipbuilders, prospectors and merchants; and you liked, not “liked,” what your friend had to say.
People in town used to roast their own beans before we set up shop, before gold miner and carpenter James Folger built what
would become The Pioneer Steam Coffee and Spice Mill. When you taste a cup of our special dark roast, we like to think you can
tell that we put as much care and hard work in our product as James. After all, there are plenty of frontiers left. We just want to
give you the jolt you need to explore them.
Pioneer Steam Coffee: The original coffee of the American frontier.